The popularity of meditation has increased
significantly in recent times, which is a good thing and a bad thing simultaneously. The good news is that more and more people are becoming aware of what meditation is. The bad part is that those who get to experience little
bit, interpret the tip of the iceberg to be the whole thing. Practices like
mindfulness meditation are popular for their benefit to both the religious and irreligious
equally, irrespective of their belief systems. Those who who do not have the
time to locate and spend time with a proper teacher to learn meditation can now
get iPhone Apps to help them develop ‘meditation skills’! Meditation, which is a
serious practice undertaken only by those who have advanced sufficiently in
their spiritual journey, has now become the routine for even the uninitiated. Let’s
spend some time examining what exactly Mediation is supposed to be according to
Hindu religion.
To understand mediation better, let us first revisit
the story from Kathopanishad. Kathopanishad opens with the story of
this person named Vājasravas who is conducting a ritual in which he is giving
away in charity everything that he possesses. As his young son, Nachiketas
observes, his father was doing this act of charity just for the sake of the
ritual and not much for the sake of recipients. For example, he was giving away
cattle that were weak, unproductive and incapable of reproduction, which would
only become a burden for the recipient. Fearing that demerits of such
burdensome gifts would bring about sufferings in future to his father,
Nachiketas decides to force his father to donate him to somebody. Vājasravas
ignores the repeated questions from his young son initially but Nachiketas was
insistent. Irritated by the pestering question from the child, Vājasravas
finally responded in anger saying ‘mrityave tvām dadāmi’, “I am gifting you to
the Lord of Death”. Nachiketas took these words from his father literally and
decided to pay a visit to Lord Yama, the God of Death, at his abode.
When Nachiketas arrived outside of Lord Yama’s palace,
Lord Yama happened to be away. Nachiketas had to wait outside Lord Yama’s abode
awaiting his return for three days and three nights. When Lord Yama arrived, he
was remorseful of leaving a young Brahmachari unattended for three days. As a
compensation for this, Yama offered him three boons to choose. With the first
boon, Nachiketas sought peace with his father who was angry at his persistence.
With the second boon, he sought a yagna ritual that will enable attainment to
heaven after death. With the third boon, Nachiketas asked to be instructed on
the highest spiritual knowledge about the nature of Brahman and Self.
Now, let us look at the metaphorical interpretation of this story. The word ‘vāja’ indicates a horse and ‘sravas’ is a stream. Thus, ‘vājasravas’ means a galloping horse that flows like a stream, which is nothing but life. ‘Vājasravas’ in this story can be thought of as a metaphor for the individual self; existing in time, aware and experiencing life. While accumulating the experiences, the individual self identifies itself with its faculties for cognition like sight, mind etc. and defines itself in terms of relationships with the objects of interaction. The ritual that Vājasravas engages in, giving away all his possession is an exercise of negating these multiple associations that the self has accumulated. This ritual can be done at a thought level in Meditation and is in fact the first stage of meditation called Dhārana, where one starts to decouple the self from its many identifications.
The challenge with the process of Dhārana is the risk of it becoming a mere intellectual exercise.
The negation can quickly become mere words repeated with no substance like the
unproductive, weak cattle Vājasravas was giving away. During the process of negation, when one has
emptied everything that defines one’s self - all the relations, possessions
etc. - what would be left is the nascent core of self-identity. Whom does that nascent
core of self-identity belong to, other than Death who ultimately takes it away
whether offered or not! For the final
release, this individual self must have a dialog with death and this dialog is
another important step of meditation. Indeeed, one has to approach the subject
of death with all the innocence of a Brahmachāri like Nachiketas.
Sri Sankarāchārya has beautifully captured the essence
of this process of Dhārana in his Nirvāna satakam:
"manobudhyahamkara
chitthāni nāham
na
cha srotra jihve nacha ghrāna netre
nacha
vyoma bhumir na thejo na vayu
childānanda
rupah sivoham sivoham
“This
mind, intellect, individual self and consciousness, they are not me; nor the (faculty
of) ears, tongue,nose and eyes. Neither am I the sky or earth, nor the fire or
air. I am Siva who is (pure) awareness and bliss; I am Siva”
“na
mrityur na sanka na me jātibheda
pitah
naiva me naiva mātah na janma
na
bhandur na mitram gurur naiva sishyam
childānanda
rupah sivoham sivoham”
“I
do not recognize death or divisions and I have no hesitations. I have no father
or mother, nor am I limited by this instance of life. I have no (identification
with my) relatives, friends, teachers or students. I am Siva who is (pure)
awareness and bliss; I am Siva”
The thought process of negating worldliness is to be followed
by an affirmation of transcendence. This thought process when sustained, takes
one to the next step of meditation, which is Dhyāna where the focus is purely on the nature of Brahman. The
Kathopanishad provides a great summary of the process of Dhyāna in a single verse:
"yasched
vāg manasi prājna
thad
yasched jnāna ātmani
jnānamātmani
mahati niyasched
thad
yasched sāntha ātmani" (Kathopanishad Canto 1, Valli 3, Sloka 13)
“Let
the awakened one merge the words (self-expressions) in the mind (ideas), and
the mind (ideas) in self-consciousness, the self-consciousness in the universal
consciousness and the universal consciousness in the peaceful Ātman (that has
no movement)”
One starts the process of Dhyāna with thoughts that are either about a favorite deity or
about the absolute nature of Brahman. Then one would observe these thoughts and
allow them to merge slowly into the very ideas from which they originate. Silence
would start to take over and what would remain is the simple process of
observation devoid of all judgements. This is the jnāna ātma. Becoming one with this self-consciousness that purely illuminates,
one would expand it to envelop the entire existence, the mahat or universal consciousness. At this stage, the dimension of space
is transcended but the awareness of time persists. When the awareness of time
is also transcended, one arrives at the doorsteps of Ātman and is ready to move
on to highest stage of meditation, known as ‘Samādhi’.
There are no verbal descriptions available for the stage of Samādhi. The only thing that is said of Samādhi is that it is not a subject of experience and nor does it leave any memory
trails. As the Kenopanishad says, if
any one claims to know and verbalizes what it is like to be in Samādhi, know for sure that person is
faking it.
Here is how Kathopanishad concludes the instruction on
meditation:
"asabdam
asparsam arupam avyayam
thadārasam
nityam agandhavatscha yat
anādyanantham
mahata param dhruvam
nichāpya
thanmrityu mukhāth pramuchyate (Kathopanishad, Canto 1, Valli 3, Sloka 14)
“Having
reached that great, firm transcendence that is devoid of sound, touch, taste, or
smell, is formless and infinite with no beginning, one is released from the jaws
of Death”
A realized soul does not stay in Samādhi forever. What happens when he or she is not in Samādhi? Again, Kenopanishad says:
“pratibodhaviditham matham amrutatvam hi vindate”
“Constantly
aware of this (the state of Samādhi as the true nature of self) in every pulse
of consciousness, one attains immortality”
Attaining this state is the purpose of Yoga, as Sage Patanjali says at the beginning of Yoga Sutra:
“yogah
chitthavritthi nirodhah
thadaa
drashtu swarupe avasthānam” Yoga Sutra, verse 1
“Yoga
is the cessation of all movements in consciousness; then the self resides solely in its
true nature of observance”
This is Meditation.
Om Tat Sat.
